Beth is a Gem! The Top 3 Lessons We’ve Learned From Her About Family & Commitment!
We Love Randall, but She's Our Favorite Pearson!
Beth Pearson is like Claire Huxtable reborn. She can love up on you and tell you about yourself without missing a beat. She’s a deeply authentic representation of Black womanhood. Black motherhood. Black wifehood.
I’m not even sure how NBC found Susan Kelechi Watson, but she is a gem. (That Kelechi part shows up!) She brings depth to Beth Pearson in a way that transcends the script. Every subtle side eye that says more than words could dare. Every bitten lip that holds back truths that aren’t yet ripe. And every time she wraps her arms in emotional protection around Randall, we see something familiar brought to life through her.
Beth is a dose of Black girl realness for the entire Pearson family. She grounds Randall. She provides balance for their family. And she does it all with fly hairstyles and a natural flavor that you can’t buy in these streets. She is the real deal.
Her presence on television is the type of representation I can get behind. Watching her gives us so many valuable lessons about motherhood and partnership. Her character isn’t perfect. Nor is it some mythical standard to live by, but she teaches us some very real lessons about family and connection in her presence on the show. So I’m counting down some of my favorite lessons that Beth Pearson has taught us!
1. Commitment Requires Sacrifice
Whew! We don’t like this shit. We want what we want, and we said what we said! But throughout four and a quarter seasons of watching Beth be a steady hand in the Pearson family, I can understand why sacrifice is so important. We don’t ever get everything we want.
My own mother has often tried to emphasize this to me. Life is always a give and take. We have to decide what’s worth giving for and what’s not. For each person that’s different, but the give and take exists for us all.
Beth gets — an awesome husband who thinks the world of her, who is loyal and devoted, who is a good father to their children, who is her biggest cheerleader. Beth sacrifices — being spontaneous and carefree and even her own wants sometimes.
She sacrifices being carefree because being married to Randall is a JOB! (But to put this in perspective we all are a job….. and every job aint the right fit for every person). But his emotional and mental health needs definitely require that his partner be a rock. Beth can’t just go off on a whim and do whatever she feels. She has to keep her finger on the pulse of her family, her marriage.
Maybe that’s not a sacrifice other people would make, but it brings her a marriage that she believes in. “Nothing lasts forever — Except us!” And it brings her a family she loves. A give and take.
2. Connection Requires Being Vocal & Saying What Needs to Be Said
She might wait until it’s the right time, but Beth Pearson will speak her mind. In those moments, she teaches us that speaking your truth is necessary. In so many moments throughout the series, she’s called her family to the carpet.
By speaking her truth, she was able to get Randall to start therapy, open her own dance studio, and set Tess straight when she blew up at Randall over her inherited anxiety issues.
What she teaches us in these moments is that our voice is important. That our truth is the spoon that stirs the pot of Gumbo. It makes sure that nothing sticks to the bottom and that everything keeps mixing and moving as it should.
My mother has always said that in any relationship we have to get comfortable laying our needs on the table. I think Beth’s ability to do this with Randall and her children is a great example of how we can exercise our voice to ensure that those in our lives understand our needs more fully.
3. Unwavering Support is a Condition of Motherhood
I’m not a mother. But we all have one. We know what the best parts of our mothers are, and we know the worst parts. As for the best, unwavering support is at the top of the list. “A face only a mother could love” is a saying for a reason. Our mothers are amazing at being able to see the best in us. As a mother, Beth reminds us that this quality is especially necessary for mothers of girls — teenage girls at that.
Beth navigates her daughters’ needs with a wisdom befitting the Claire Huxtable nod that I gave her earlier. When Tess came out to her and Randall, she showed up as a mother, giving her daughter nothing but love and support. When she discovered Deja’s alopecia, her words were the comfort needed to let Deja know that no matter what she’d been through, Beth’s kind hand would be there to support her.
She brings out the best of motherhood. She works to make the Pearson family feel like a home. Her unwavering support is a part of this recipe that brings it all together.
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I’m a fan of Beth. Hands down. I would have loved to see more of her in last week’s season premiere, but even with her limited appearance, she ended the show with an amazingly optimistic outlook that was itself a lesson.
In her closing lines, she reminds Randall, and us, that life is always going to have its moments where we can focus on the sad, but it also will have its beauty. And we can choose to let the sad weigh us down or we can focus on the beauty and allow that to refuel us as we press on in our battle. I could go on and on, but I’ll stop. Every Beth moment is literally a teachable one. That’s why we love her!
Photos credit (all): NBC Universal
